Outside the Box
by stillplayingpretend
Summary: What was Filius Flitwick's first day at Hogwarts like? A one-shot written for the House's Competition. Prompt: [Character] Filius Flitwick. Addition requirements: Must be set entirely in the past.


**A/N: House/Team: Badgers. Class Subject: Potions Category: Standard. Prompt: [Character] Filius Flitwick. Word Count: 2081. I'm not J.K. Rowling. Flitwick's goblin ancestor is only identified by Rowling in interviews as being a distant ancestor, so I've elected to make it his great-grandfather. **

Filius frowned up at his books that had somehow managed to move from their place safely at the foot of his bed to the top of the large statue of Rowena Ravenclaw in the Ravenclaw common room. He heard giggles coming from some nearby students are they watched the pint-sized first year take in the sight of his things wobbling precariously on top of the statue's head. "Need some help there, shrimp?" asked one of the third years in a falsely cheery tone.

Filius flushed and shook his head. A fresh round of giggles started up again as Filius calmly pulled out his wand and pointed it at the statue. "_Wingardium Leviosa_," Filius said evenly. He gently lifted his books off of the statue and back down to the ground, ignoring the shocked looks on the faces of his housemates. Filius promptly put his books back into his bag and allowed himself a small grin as he turned and gave the other students a small nod. "If you'll excuse me, I must be going. Wouldn't want to be late for my first day of classes!"

The whispers didn't bother Filius so much as the sneers.

Filius understood curiosity. He himself was an extremely curious person, and ultimately it was that curiosity that led to him being placed in Ravenclaw house instead of in Gryffindor. When he'd sat under the sorting hat the previous night, it had deliberated for several minutes over whether to put him with the Lions or the Eagles. As he sat there waiting, Filius couldn't help but wonder at the magic that must have gone into creating a sentient, thousand-year-old hat. '_Excuse me_,' he thought hesitantly. '_Can I just ask – is it the original spell of the founders that still animates you? Or does the spell have to be refreshed every couple of years? For a charm to continue on for a thousand years must be remarkable magic… of course, if anyone could pull that off, it would be the founders but – I'm sorry is it rude of me to ask? That wasn't my intention. I was just wondering…._'

The Sorting Hat went silent for a second and then began to chuckle. '_Oh yes, plenty of bravery in you._' The Hat said knowingly. '_But when it comes down to it, I think the best place for you would be…_' "RAVENCLAW!"

A polite smattering of applause had echoed throughout the chamber as Filius went and took his seat with Ravenclaw house, his nose barely peeking up from beneath the table as he took his seat on the bench. He turned to the older boy next to him with an excited smile. "Hi, I'm Filius Flitwick!" He said brightly, extending his hand.

The boy next to him hesitated for a moment, then reached out and shook it warmly. "Magnus Shacklebolt."

"Isn't this exciting? I can't wait to start classes tomorrow. Do you know what the first year timetables have been like in the past?"

"Uh, pretty basic I guess," Magnus replied distractedly as Lestrange, Gregory became the year's first Slytherin. "Don't worry, you'll get to all the classes eventually."

Filius let out a small sigh. "I know, but it never hurts to be prepared. If I know which classes we have tomorrow, then I can make sure to look over the material tonight."

"You haven't looked at your books yet?" asked Magnus raising his eyebrows and clapping automatically as Hannah Lorken was added to Hufflepuff house.

"Of course I have," said Filius hurriedly. "But I want to be able to look over the information again a bit more closely once I know which classes I'll be having first."

"Ah yes, that makes sense. You should find out tomorrow morning- Oh, look! I think we might have a hatstall."

"REALLY?" Filius stood up on the bench to get a better look. "There hasn't been a true hatstall in years!"

"Well, you came pretty close to being one yourself. Yeah, it's definitely been over five minutes." Magnus and Filius looked at the unassuming girl currently under the sorting hat carefully. "You ever heard of anyone named McGonagall before?"

"No, I don't think so." Filius craned his neck to try and see. "Where do you think she'll end up-"

"GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the Sorting Hat.

A large round of applause went up as Minerva McGonagall, the first hatstall in several decades, went and took her place at the Gryffindor table. Filius let out a little squeak of excitement and slipped off the bench with a _thunk_. Thankfully, Magnus seemed to be the only person who had noticed.

"Sorry," Filius said breathlessly. He put both of his hands on the bench and pulled himself back up to the table. Magnus looked him up and down and furrowed his brow. "You some kind of… half-breed?"

Filius suddenly became very aware of the other students sitting at the table. He felt all of the blood rush to his face as he tried to look anywhere but directly at Magnus. "My-my grandfather was half-goblin."

"Really?" piped up another student. "That makes you what, one-sixteenth?"

Filius nodded, and he heard a chorus of giggles arise from the girls seated to his left. "Are you good with money?" One of them asked.

"Not particularly." Filius was abundantly happy that at that moment, the sorting ended and Headmaster Dippet had announced the beginning of the feast, and the topic of conversation had shifted away from his ancestry. Filius had hoped that would be the end of it.

He had been wrong.

He had followed a Prefect back to the Ravenclaw common room with the rest of the first years only to find that someone had hung a banner that said "Gringotts" across his bed. He had woken up in the middle of the night and realized that someone had shrunk his clothes to a size more fitting to a mouse. And even now walking to class, he could feel the eyes of his fellow students, all wondering what exactly was wrong with him. '_I only ever met my great-grandfather once_,' Filius complained internally. '_And he tried to get me to agree to sell my wand to him._' With a sigh, Filius walked into the greenhouse and took his place next to a Slytherin boy who immediately got up and moved to a different spot. Undeterred, Filius moved across the greenhouse to a bunch of Ravenclaws who laughed, stood up, and also moved away. Finally, frustrated beyond belief, he settled himself at the back of the room for the duration of the lesson.

When it was over, Filius obediently got in line to put away his watering can with the rest of the students. He was almost at the front of the line when all of a sudden he felt his feet leave the ground, and then he was spinning around and soaring through the air! He landed with a clang in the midst of the watering cans, rising to a roar of laughter from the Slytherins and muttered snickers from his housemates.

"Why did you do that!" Filius demanded.

"Oops." Smirked a Slytherin boy. "Sorry. I thought you were the garden gnome and decided to do some de-gnoming."

"I'm not a gnome!" Filius shouted. Ashamed, he realized there were tears in his eyes. He wiped them away furiously.

"I don't really care what you are, half-breed," said the Slytherin in a bored voice.

Filius gathered up his things and sprinted from the greenhouse as fast as his legs could carry him. He sat down on a stump at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, looked around to make sure he was alone, and promptly burst into tears. _It's not fair,_ he thought angrily. _I'm just as good as any of them. Why can't they just leave me alone and focus on their own lives?_

"Woohoo, there. What's this?" came a voice from the forest.

Filius immediately stood up and brandished his wand in the voice's general direction. He tried to look as fierce and dangerous as possible, something that was ruined by his two-foot-tall statue and tear-streaked face.

"There's no need fer tha'. I'm not goin' to hurt yeh."

Out of the forest came the biggest man Filius had ever seen. He was larger than the other students, larger than the biggest professor – larger than Filius would have thought to have been humanly possible. _No, not a man,_ Filius realized suddenly, _he's just a teenager; he can't be more than eighteen or ninete_en_._ Filius held his ground but lowered his wand. "Who are you?" he asked boldly.

The stranger dropped what appeared to be several skinned animals on the ground near Filius's stump and extended his hand. "Rubeus Hagrid, Hogwart's groundskeeper at yer service. And who might yeh be?"

Filius took the humongous hand in his own and shook it gingerly, watching as Hagrid's hand completely enveloped his own. "Filius Flitwick."

Hagrid smiled and sat down next to him. "Filius, eh? I've never seen yeh around before, a first year, are yeh?"

Filius nodded and tried to wipe his face self-consciously. "Sorry if I disturbed you, I didn't think anyone was out here."

Hagrid eyed Filius shrewdly and then smiled. "Yeh're not botherin' me. But I have to wonder, what's a first year like yeh doin' out here near the forest all by yerself?"

Filius tried to shrug nonchalantly. "I had herbology earlier, and I was just… taking a moment to myself."

"Were yeh? Nice thin' to do every once in awhile." Hagrid and Filius gazed out into the forest together for a moment, then Hagrid turned to Filius abruptly. "My mum's a giant."

"Really?" Filius tried not to look shocked. He had never met anyone who as part giant before. They were said to be vicious – but then again, so were goblins. He looked at Hagrid with fresh eyes, taking in his gigantic limbs and calloused hand but finally coming to rest on his kind eyes. "That… that must be hard." Filius said finally.

"Yeah." Hagrid looked off into the distance again. "Kids can be cruel. Especially if they don't understand. Tha's what I came to learn – most people, it's not really tha' they hate yeh. It's jus' tha' they like the world to fit into boxes they can grasp. And if yeh don't fit in a box, well. Then they try to make yeh. Most people don't know tha' my mum's a giant, but.. they know summat's different. But I don't mind too much, once I remember they're jus' scared."

"How do you get them to stop being scared?" Filius asked quietly.

Hagrid shrugged. "Show 'em yeh're not goin' to let 'em get to yeh. Prove to 'em yeh've jus' as much a right to be here as anyone else. Shouldn't be hard, a kid like yeh. First day o' class an' yeh're ready to take down whatever was comin' out o' tha' forest."

Filius laughed. "I didn't have much of a choice; I was worried something was going to eat me!"

Hagrid let out a big, bellowing guffaw. "Yeh ought to take up duelin'. What were yeh goin' to do if I turned out to actually be somethin' dangerous?"

Filius looked Hagrid directly in the eye and frowned. "Run like hell."

Hagrid chortled again and smacked Filius on the back, causing him to go careening off his stump. Hagrid reached over with one hand and righted him with a mumbled "Sorry."

"It's okay," wheezed Filius. He looked down at his watch and frowned. "Would you want to walk back up to the castle with me?"

"I was headed tha' way myself." Said Hagrid. He rose with a groan and scooped up his game again. "Got to go talk to Professor Dumbledore."

"Albus Dumbledore!?" asked Filius.

Hagrid grinned. "Have yeh had transfiguration yet?"

Filius shook his head. "No."

"Yeh're about to meet the man who defeated Grindlewald."

"NO WAY!" exclaimed Filius. "And he teaches here? At Hogwarts?"

"Yup. Greatest man I ever knew. Gone out on a limb fer me several times."

Filius followed Hagrid back up toward the castle, squeaking with mirth as Hagrid described the time that he had gotten caught trying to smuggle a herd of kelpies into the Prefect's bathroom. '_People don't fit into boxes_' he thought wryly to himself. '_But maybe outside the box is not always the worst place to be_.'


End file.
